Thursday, 25 June 2015

Interview with Departed Souls

INTERVIEW WITH Rai, DEPARTED SOULS

I know I
wasn’t posting many interview lately, but that’s not because I haven’t done
any. I actually did quite few, but I want to keep most of them for the new,
coming issue of the printed fanzine, and maybe later, once the paper is
released, to post them also here on the website. But maybe I will do some exceptions
for couple of bands, as I want to give them a bigger and faster exposure and
support. And one such band is Departed Souls, of my good friend Rai, who is the
growler over there. This band literally blew my head off and crushed the bones
with the debut MCD “Barbaric Tortures”. Damn, what a killer piece of OSDM! So,
I made this interview quickly, Rai also answered it quickly, with killer
lengthy answers… and now I am posting it all, so Departed Souls gets a nice
promotion and first interview ever. So, here it is! Enjoy and support those old
fucks!

Cheers Raimond!
I guess we can call ourselves friends, but let’s be honest – I am not making
this interview because of that, but because I truly love your band and think it
just deserves support and recommendation. So, I hope you won’t mind if I ask
some more or less stupid questions! Shall we start?

He Marcin, yes, it could be called friends
indeed. And we appreciate it a lot, you promoting our band. Even with the fact
that we are just a bunch of old guys that have some with it.

You
recently turned 24 y.old (hahahah!!!), so you know your metal pretty well
already haha. Do you remember which bands were the ones, which opened the metal
book for you? When was it? What were your favourite bands in the beginning,
what were the first t-shirts you were proudly wearing, gigs you attended?
Finally, at what point did you open your eyes also for more extreme sounds, for
death and thrash metal, as I suppose the beginnings were the same as for most
of us, with softer heavy metal or doom classics?

Thanks, yes I turned 24 for the 18th time
now haha. And I think, I know a bit of the scene that I’m involved in. While
others, may have another opinion of course. About me, I am a stubborn old
school fanatic. As far as the memories bring me back, my dad was an old rocker.
He listened to Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Sabbath and so on. So, these were the
tunes that I grew up with. My dad was a truck driver and he always came home
with some new LP’s and cassettes back in the days. So at one point, I think I
was about

8 or 9 I got a little extra excited and waited for dad to arrive
home. And was wondering, what he had brought along. It was somewhere around my
10th year, my dad took me to a gig of Uriah Heep. And I know, that’s not the
most brutal band ever. But still, I was overwhelmed with the atmosphere around
it. And of course all the people there, enjoying, having fun and being
friendly. To me, that was the breaking point, I decided to be a “metal head” haha!
My first real LP, that my dad brought home for me, aas the split LP called
“Death Metal”. It had the bands Helloween, Running Wild, Dark Avenger and
Hellhammer on it on the Noise label. (Yeap,
I know which one you mean… not much death metal on it though haha! – M.) It
was hardly death metal. But for a kid that turned 11 this were some real, nasty
tunes compared to the Sabbath and Heep riffings. From that LP, Helloween became
one of my main bands, that I was highly interested in. So, my dad brought home
their EP and the “Walls of Jericho” LP. Great stuff for a youngster.

From there, I started listening a radio
program called Vara’svuurwerk. This was on every Tuesday evening. It had an
amazing host, and brought us excellent new tunes of bands we never heard. They played
a song called “The Exorcist” by Possessed. And I was totally blown away. The
fury, the anger, the aggression. All came in one. So to say, this album I
immediately wanted. And I got it for my 12th birthday. I will never forget it.
Simply, because of the nasty, annoying fringing intro on it. There is a great
story behind that of course haha. Interested in hearing? Or, don’t want to be
bored with this interview hehe. (Ok, when we were young kids, we were tough and
rough and mean of course. We were into cool things as metal music and we dared
to watch the biggest, scariest horror movies that were available… this included
also the Exorcist. This movie, really, it scared the living shit out of me. We
were probably 10 or something. And watched it with some friends. And damn, I
didn’t dare to sleep for weeks. Let’s not talk about going outside in the dark
after soccer practice haha. And all because of that terrible annoying tune,
which constantly came back in that movie. Finally after a few months we dares
to do our things again. And we had forgotten the movie and all involved. So,
then it was my 12th birthday. My dad had this LP, because I had it on my
wishlist. And I was happy as hell of course… I ran upstairs, took it out, laid
it on the player. And got smashed in the face, with a horrible green smelling
puke hammer, by hearing that never expected annoying tune again… I immediately
was back in the frightened mode and turned it of. And listened it a few weeks
later again, skipping the intro of course every time I played that album haha.
I get tons of goosebumbshaha.)

From there, more extreme bands entered my
domain. Bands as Sodom, Destruction, Tormentor (Kreator). Mostly the German
scene, I got to find out. Due to the fact, that my dad brought it home from his
trips there.

At what
point did you discover the existence of underground death metal and the whole
movement with fanzines, demo cassettes, tape trading etc? Coming from
Netherlands, you must have watched the creation of the phenomenal scene in this
country in the early 90’s, which for me is second only to the one in Sweden
here in Europe. What can you say about the old Dutch death and thrash metal
scene? Which bands – except the big names – were the most active and most
interesting according to you? Which did you see playing live, in some small
obscure venues? Which are your truly favourite Dutch bands of all time? I guess
the choice is just damn too difficult, as there are like 20-30 truly awesome
bands, but I know you have a special appreciation for Burial and Polluted
Inheritance. Explain yourself haha!

From when I moved to highschool, we came
involved in the tape-trading thing. With some friends of mine, we had contacts
in Sweden, USA, Germany and where not. And also in our own country, which, as
you mentioned, had a huge scene of extreme bands. From the tapes we got , we
learned about bands as Merciless (Swe) and Mantas. And what else were on these
tapes back then. That brought us a new, huge metal scene. In the Netherlands,
we had so many great bands in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The Dutch bands I first
saw perform live were MystoDysto later (Mandator) and Asgard. I know you don’t
like the Mandator thing, but for us as teenagers they showed some highly inspired
heavy, speed, thrash metal with a fanatic fancrew already back then. Other
Dutch bands that really got my interest in the early days were Thanatos,
Sepulchral Death, L.W.S., Usurper(NL) and mostly these kind of thrashy bands.
Later Pestilence, Asphyx, Lethargy (Dead Head), Polluted Inheritance and many
more, we saw perform live. And we bought their demo’s or what ever they had. Some
of these bands had the more death metal vibe in them. Pestilence which had a
few awesome thrash demos, for example turned from their awesome thrash style,
into what I call a “Psychopathic” death metal act. This had to do, of course with
the sick, insane vocals by van Drunen. Don’t know what made him decide to sing
like this, but he probably was trying to eat, or cannibalize all he got in
sight. Amazing!!

We already had Theo Loomans (RIP) and his
way of singing on the Asphyx demo’s, which were absolutely sick. And van Drunen
on “ Consuming Impulse” made it a few steps more psycho idiot. So, this was
another turning point in the extreme Dutch scene I guess. More bands turned
more extreme and faster. From every part in Holland, we had so many good bands.
Sinister, Sempiternal Deathreign, Korsakov, God Dethroned, Altar, Adetar,
Nocturn, Incursion Dementa, Beyond Belief. Just name them. They all came up
with their own, new kind of death metal. Some of them, turned into death /
doom. Others created the black / death metal thing. It was a real pleasure,
growing up back in these days. Especially if you were into the extreme metal
scene. Our parents thought different I guess?? Haha. My dad loved it. And never
told me not to.

My all-time favorite Dutch bands, in no
random order:

Polluted
Inheritance: Some old
school death metal, with a small technical (not the freakery style) input. And
a drummer, IMO, which was, and maybe still is the best drummer we have ever had
in the Netherlands. I don’t know if Friso is still active. But damn… he was
good.

Burial: A great old school death metal band, which
combined influences of the USA Florida scene, to one amazing mix. Their demo
and album brings back the memories of the old Death, Massacre and so on. “Pure”
death metal I call it.

Mandator: Of course, this has to do with nostalgic
feelings. We simply grew up with these guys from our area. We visited their
gigs from age 12? When they were called MystoDysto. I just simply love the
simple speed, thrash metal they played.

Pestilence:
Up to their “Testimony” album. This band was
just so awesome, to see live back then. Aggression, and psycho van Drunen hehe,
and great music. “Out of the Body” was my first pit, if I remember well. Their
albums “Consuming Impulse” and “Malleus Maleficarum” were killing and still
kill.

There are
also some Dutch bands I never liked like The Gathering, Bluuurgh or
Phlebotomized. What do you think of them?

The Gathering were also a band that
introduced another kind of death metal. Their early music I do like. Later they
turned into something that I didn’t like at all. Bluuurrrgh, hmmm some of the
music is quite good. But it never really got me. Phlebotomized also turned into
something that I can’t listen. I do like their demos and EP’s. But their debut
album, totally blew me away! And not in a positive way so to say. Haha. I
didn’t buy anything from them after that, so I can’t judge on what they are
now.

What demo
cassettes were your favourites back in the old days? Also which fanzines? I
remember you saying you were also getting quite a lot of promotional vinyl back
in the old days, so where did you write your reviews? The best Dutch and European
demo of all time is…?

One of my favorite demos back then? Hmmm,
let me think. It might be one from the Swedish band Merciless. “Realm of the
Dark” was a fantastic death-thrash demo, which I constantly had on the replay
mode. The songs, the vocals, the total atmosphere. This was something that got
me stuck on it. Don’t know, this was and will probably be one of those things
that never let’s loose.

Me and a friend, had an underground zine
back then. The same A4 type you still create (I can’t remember what name it
was.. a shame. I have to contact Olav for all 4 editions) and which I always
will love to read. And hope they keep on existing. Also I wrote a while for the
Dutch zine Aardschok. We got a lot of demos, EP’s, CD’s and LP’s from bands and
some labels as DSP, Prophecy. Which unfortunately I’ve sold all. I know. But I
guess a whole bunch of people do stupid things.. isn’t it??

The best Dutch demo: Then I have to choose
between, God Dethroned’s “Christhunt” and Burial’s “Frigid Cold”. That’s a hard
one. Best European demo: This is absolutely Merciless’ “Realm of the Dark”. As
I mentioned.

Some of you
Departed guys were playing in a band called Sekhmet back then, who did a demo
in 1991. How was it like?. Nick Brockman also performed in Salacious God and
Lugubre. What about these two?

The band Sekhmet was formed by Alwin if I’m
right. And Erik and some other friends joined it. The band played death metal
from start of, later they added more influences. They also started to play
covers if I’m correct. And from there I didn’t follow them anymore and we lost
a bit of contact with each other. Everybody got his own jobs, and other
interests. Not to forget families. Alwin joined a band called The Wounded. Some
kind of Gothic-Pop-Rock act, which released some albums also. And were/are
quite popular. The band still exists and has a release coming up. But don’t ask
me when. The Sekhmet demo they recorded was a rehearsal demo. And had some awesome
death metal songs on it. Probably, we are going to use “some” pieces from that
music. Since Erik, wrote a lot of the material and it never had a descent
release. Nick Brockman is our black metal guy in the band. He played in several
bands. And was also, the only one from the four of us, who was constantly active,
in the extreme metal scene, indeed with Salacious God and Lugubre. With
Salacious they released a shitload of music already, which probably is also
something you like. For me, as a stubborn, narrow minded old school death /
thrash metal dude it’s a bit too much… But he did much more. Played in some
obscure videoclips, movies. We can call him the metaloholic haha.

So,
recently some old men from Schoonebeek decided to form an old school death
metal band. Why? What made you do this? Did you want to feel younger, felt a
mid life crisis and wanted to see if you still have guts and energy to move
from the wheelchair or was it nothing more, but an undying passion for these
rotten sounds? Who came with an idea to bring Departed Souls to life and how
did the line up shape? How long did you all know each other? Are you living
closely?

A few years back, I had the idea and some
riffs in mind, which I would love to see created as real music. Unfortunately
due to a broken wrist, (I can’t play guitar normally. I used to play bass.) I
couldn’t get it recorded. So that frustrated the hell out of me for a few
years… Since I’m a metal collector, I go to some of the fairs we have over here.
And this is where Alwin and I met, after something like 19 years? We talked a
bit and found out about our addictions of collecting as much as possible music.
Especially metal music. So, we both went home and arranged that we would get in
touch through the social media. And from there, the memories came back from the
old days. Alwin and I were about 13 years old. We had our own death metal band
called Necropsy, which had another friend of us in it, Bart. We created our own
songs. And recorded them with an old portable cassette-player. I still have
these tapes somewhere. We were highly influenced by bands as Venom, Possessed
and Death. So, I told Alwin about the ideas that I had and he told me what he
had in mind. Alwin wanted to start a doom metal band in the vein of old
Candlemass, My Dying Bride. And I was of course motivated, to start an old
school death metal band again. So, I asked, if he was interested to join and
“re-live” the younger years again? And just see where it all would end. Alwin
directly answered with yes, let’s see what we can arrange on our old days haha.
As Alwin and Nick were still friends, from their youth years. He recommended to
ask Nick in. And within a blink of an eye Nick agreed and was very interested
to join something completely different from what he did for a lifetime already.
Erik was also as mentioned an old friend of us. And without a band. So, Alwin
send him a message. And it turned out that Erik was also waiting for such an
opportunity to loose his riffing frustrations haha. So, the band Departed Souls
was formed within a few weeks with only old friends from the high school era.
Nick and I live about 500 meters from each other. Erik and Alwin decided to
live in the “Big cities” Zwolle and TerApel.

I guess
since day one you opted for the old school death metal sound and there was no
consideration to play anything else, right? When listening to “Barbaric
Tortures” it is obvious that your style has a strong Swedish DM influence, but
also a lot from Dutch, British bands plus obviously an old Death and Autopsy
putridity to make it all even more impressive. Was it difficult to adopt to
this style, to come up with some decent riffs and songs, or it went
surprisingly smoothly and natural? Who’s the main songwriter in the band?

It all started with us wanting to do
something really old school. We all dislike the terrible “36 strings” technical
freakery they also call death metal lately. (yes I know, people will hate me
for this. I don’t care!! Death metal is still meant for passion and not for
fashion). So we said, this has to be as we liked back then from the tape trading
era. Raw, dirty, nasty and unpolished. We got together and decided to downtune
to A. And of course use the almighty Boss HM-2 distortions again. So we showed
respect to a lot of the older scenes at once. The songs are mainly written by
the two guitar guys, but we all have our ideas and we just tell them, so the
guys try to translate them into riffs and rhythms. And to surprise, Nick and
Erik had already a lot of ideas for some riffs laying around. And they turned
out to be perfect, to fit the raw ideas we had in mind. So the songs came out
easily and I had to write some lyrics for them.

Ancient
Darkness Productions did the CD and Unholy Prophecies a tape version – so, two
our friendly labels. What did you feel, when you got both releases in your
hands and played them first time? I mean, at certain age it turns out that the
dreams can become true, even if you would never imagine them to happen,
especially when getting older and older! I suppose you must be damn proud of
this shit! I would!

The moment we had this MCD and cassette in
hands felt indeed like something magnificent. Yes, we never expected this.
Never had an idea to get a label, never had this in mind. Only wanted to play
some music we liked. Do some gigs and mostly have fun with it. And yes, we are
very happy with Ancient Darkness Productions and Unholy Prophecies. What else
can we be? These guys gave us the opportunity to do something we never dreamt
of..

As you
know, I loved “Barbaric Tortures”. It turned out into a real death metal beast,
with killer powerful sound, great song, memorable riffs, cool, harsh vocals...
I just did not expect it to be as awesome! Are you personally happy with the
final result and the feedback the band is getting?

Yes, we are happy with it. Also, if you know
the fact this was the first real album recordings Nick did in his own, new Fire
and Brimstone studios. We recorded all there: drums, guitars, bass and of
course the vocals. So, it was all a complete new exciting process for Nick. And
we think he did an amazing job on our recordings. We also found out, while we started
to record the guitars, the guys had a tuning issue with one guitar. And it
turned out they both had rehearsed in G all the time. And not in A as we wanted
from the start haha. So we decided let’s stay in G. It makes it extra heavy I
guess.

We get some real, nice feedback and
compliments about the sound of the MCD. And about the old school feeling that
we added into the songs. Of course we have some things, we would probably do
different now, maybe? But it will always have that sick, unpolished and nasty
sound we created.

You first
released sort of rehearsal demo, with one song on it only. To be honest, I
wasn’t much impressed by this one, even though “Witch Trials” is a killer song
(awesome version on the new CD), but the sound quality of this recording was
just too poor. What was the aim of this demo? No one should be impressed with
just one, badly recorded song! Anyways, you got already some feedback from the
scene!

We just wanted to hear some thoughts. Pure
about the idea, what we were up to. OSNRDM, and see how the reactions were. In
some, strange way a whole lot of people liked it. Not for the sound of it, but
the old school vibe that was on it. The CD-r demo was printed in 25 pieces. And
were gone in no time. We never expected this. So, we thought, let’s see, if we
make another 50! I drew another cover for those 50 and they were also gone,
within less then 2 weeks. The countries where we had to send them, was a
complete shock, in a positive way. They were shipped to Singapore, USA, Japan,
Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and I can go on. It was a complete
awesome never expected experience. This also was made possible through the
social media, chain reaction thing. We know that. But still people bought it.
And send us back great feedback. We were very thankful for that. And knew we
stepped into the right direction, with what we had in mind.

I know you
as a crazy CD/LP/MC collector, who doesn’t know the limits and want to own
everything what’s out there haha! This is for us a real sickness and I guess
even an addiction, but we don’t want it to end. One day I told my wife that my
collection is worth a decent new car and she cried haha! I bet your collection
is worth even more than mine! So, have you ever considered selling it all,
buying a fancy new Lexus and just listen to the radio or mp3 haha?

Hahaha, I think, and you know that yourself,
you have an amazing collection as well, with things that are on my want / wishlist
for ages haha. And I probably will never own these. Yes, I did some kind of a
calculation one day. And yes, I gently told my lady and I will keep her
reaction private, I guess?? Hahaha But, what is a so called collection worth?
To me, a fortune. To others? Not a shitty penny. Each has his own gems. Each
has his own special items. A favorite band and so on. So, there will always be
some kind of discussion about things, being worth what exactly. Neverending,
just like our search and chase for another nice old metal release.

No. I won’t sell it all. I might sell some
things, which I never play anymore and which is just holding space.

Radio?? I hate that media these days, the
Dutch radio is filled with total utta crap. Music which is made behind a
computer and with no real instruments at all. Just shitty loops on and on. You
know what they call themselves? “Serious radio” and they try push all these
shitty, none saying artists that we unfortunately also have in our country down
our throats. You would turn sick again. None of these stations pays any
attention or shows some support to the huge metal scene we still have in the
Netherlands. That’s unbelievable. I mean, we have acts as Hail of Bullets,
Asphyx, God Dethroned and whatever, which get so much support from German
media. And of course the fantastic metal scene there. They even play live gigs
on German national television. And so on. Why not in the Netherlands? We simply
don’t exist for them. So, no good words……..

Mp3’s is a thing, that I only use, when
there is no other way of getting music. Sometimes a CD, LP is so rare That I’m
happy, that I have a mp3 version on a CD-r or something. But there is not much CD-rs
that I own with music on it. Back in the days. I downloaded also a lot of these
newer albums. And I am not an hypocrite that will tell, oh, I never did that.
But mostly, when I liked it I bought it. Or just deleted it. Because I simply
didn’t like it. And that’s a lot.

We all had
to sell some stuff at one point, when the financial crisis or other needs came.
I know you had to get rid of some killer vinyl collections, which is just a
shit thing to do… But at the same time you still own some real jewels. So tell
us, which are 10 of your favourite pieces you have. And why do you need 2131
different versions of “The Winterlong”, “Beyond the Unknown” or “Like an Ever
Flowing Stream” haha?

OK, I try to explain, why I so like to get
so many different pressings of one release. Hehe. Yes, back in 2006 I sold a
lot of good stuff. And that still hurts as, if my left ball is turned inside
out, and slamdunk’d into my right ball. I don’t know where it came from, but I
think it had to do with a Death “Leprosy” CD, that I found on a fair. And I
thought, I didn’t have that. Turned out, when I got home. I already had a CD of
it. And now I got this Combat press and the Under one Flag extra. I thought it
was pretty cool, to own these two of them. And after that, every time I saw a
Leprosy CD I had to check which pressing it was. If I didn’t had it yet I took
it with me. I just wanted to do this kind of collecting thing, with the “Leprosy”
album. Since that was first of my most favorite albums, ever! Well as known, now
I have five bands, which I try to find, as much as possible pressings from
every release they did. (Incubus, God Macabre, Dismember, Death and Malevolent
Creation). Its an addiction haha.

My most favorite pieces I own?

- God Macabre “The Winterlong” CD – MBR

- Epitaph “Seeming Salvation” CD – Thrash

- Macabre End “Consumed by Darkness” demo

- Merciless “The Awakening” CD – DSP

- Burial “Relinquished Souls” CD – WVR

- Polluted Inheritance “Ecocide” CD – WVR

- Hazael “Thor” CD – Loud out

- Dismember “LAEFS” – ALL

- Incubus “Serpent Temptation LP” – Brutal
Records

- Death – Probably all.

I know
which are your favourite death metal albums… but maybe it would be cool to say,
which death metal albums / bands you think are the most overrated and don’t
really deserve the attention they received? I for example think that recently
the band Gruesome is one such overrated thing. Sure, they’re good, but are they
better than many other new old school death metal bands? I don’t think so. But
they have some known musicians, a good label, a bit of luck and good support,
what made their debut album a quick sold out piece and a sudden sought after
release. Good for them, but I can name quite few bands, which I just like way
more than Gruesome! And from the old days, well… to be honest, I always
considered such Cryptopsy and Kataklysm to be highly overrated bands.

Well, I don’t know how to say it polite and nicely,
but there are indeed some bands that earned contracts with labels, which made
me turn my head almost 360 degrees. I think, the real good bands, will get
their share anyhow. Bands that I think that are overhyped? Pffff let’s see, if I
can come up with some examples.

Back in the days:

Cynic. Damn what a terrible disappointing
release that was. They were promoted as the next big thing in death metal. It
turned out to be a freaky, fancy crap CD and the label kept pushing them far to
long.

Cryptopsy I might add as well. After their
first 2 or 3 albums they created something I thought why is this still selling.

Now:

Vampire, what a total hipster shit (sorry,
for who likes it) with their stolen mystery act show “oooh lets not tell who we
are”) like that band Ghost did. So, idiotic. And they deserved a contract with
something I will never understand, while other amazing bands as Smothered and
Entrapment, didn’t get any attention from Century Media. Luckily Smothered and
Entrapment got a nice label in Soulseller. So, their music found his way to us.
And we can feast on their great tunes.

I know also
how crazy ass you are for the Swedish death metal sound. What is in this style
that you love so much? Obviously everyone has his own opinion, just as each
have his own arsehole, but I agree that this country is very special and
created a killer scene, with many awesome bands and truly special albums. God
Macabre, Dismember, Grave, Desultory, Gorement, Goddefied, Uncanny, Unanimated,
Nirvana2002, Hypocrisy, Centinex, Tiamat, Lobotomy, Vomitory, Séance… we can
name so many amazing bands!

The thing with the Swedish scene is, they
created a sound, that hit me damn hard. There is something within the sound and
the vocal style that gives me the shivers. These bands, created an evil atmosphere,
added some dark symphonies. The total darkness around the scene, the
neverending band potential and unbelievable great, friendly guys behind that
scene. The ongoing scream, for more buzz saw sounding riffs. In every style you
could think of. Thrash, death, black and doom metal. Just made me search for more
of these bands. It was also some kind of addiction I guess, to find a new band again.
The scene was close by, so that made it extra interesting also I think.

Finally,
there’s that Polish death metal scene, which you also have a great interest in.
I sometimes think that you overrate it a bit haha, but sure, we have some nice
bands here, both old and new. So, what is that you like in the Polish death
metal so much?

The Polish scene, to me, always had
something special. The bands from there, are filled with so much hatred, pure
aggression and an untamable fury. That it almost scares you with the thought,
what, if I ever have to go to Poland? What will they do? Haha They play fast as
hell. And still the music wont give in, on quality. That’s my opinion… Older
bands as Hate, Armagedon, Oppressor, Ghost, Vader are great examples of that
furious style. Of course there are more that I like, but then, we can fill two
zines with bands haha. New bands as Dira Mortis, Horror of Naatu are a great
examples that they will carry on with this excellent style of furious death
metal. Also, Poland came up with some other amazing new OSDM bands as Offence,
Embrional and my fave in this genre, The Dead Goats. It’s hardly to believe
they also come from Poland.

OK, let’s
be back to the Departed Souls. Are there any plans for live performances? I
remember you were saying that you consider it to happen. But will your wives
let you go and play? I heard that MrsWolters is afraid you’ll get a heart
attack from the stage fright haha! Besides, you don’t have hair anymore, are
too fat and too old, so it may be too exhausting for you to play longer than
for ten minutes haha!

Well, yes we have some plans about that. But
as you know and mentioned, we are already old farts, that don’t have any
stamina left. Haha so this might be a
huge issue haha. We just wait and see, If there is some clubs, shows, fests
interested to have us on their list. In the meantime, we just try to write some
new tunes. Which we hope, the people are accepting as they did with our MCD
“Barbaric Tortures”. If not? Well, we still will keep playing the shit we like,
and we will make the best out of it. On our old days.

Also, some
new songs are being composed. Tell us more about them! Which direction they go?
Will you add some rap singing, keyboards and make corpsepaints with baseball
hats? What are the next, confirmed, release plans for the band? Is the vinyl
version of “Barbaric Tortures” going to be something special for you?

We are indeed working on new tunes and they
will keep the same old school, simple, hooky riffings. No strange instruments
or sounds will be added. So expect nothing else then the OSNRDM we already play
now. We have some things on plan, some new songs will be recorded soon. Some
splits will be on plan… And the vinyl will be released later this year, which
will have some bonus material on it. So, that’s for all of us, something
special yes, if you can call it that.

Does the
band moniker hold a certain meaning for you or it’s just a cool name, nothing
else? What is the lyrical topic? Do you think that death metal needs to be only
about certain themes such as death, occult, horror, gore, mystery,
anti-religion, Satan, or it can basically be anything you wish, including
politics or even christianity?

The name “Departed Souls”, I had written
down, many years ago already. It’s a piece of lyrics from an old At The Gates
song “Souls of the Evil Departed” that came from their “Gardens of Grief” demo.
thought it sounded cool. And it shows a bit respect to the old Swedish scene,
which we love so much, again. We are mainly using the medieval period, for our
lyrical interest. And then especially, the way of torturing the so called
witches, sorcerers and others, who were accused of black magic and being
satanic involved. Of course all innocent, but you had to blame someone else,
for all your evil mind twists. “To stay in control of the masses”

Lyrical themes within the metal scene, to
me, are not that important. I think, each band decides what they want to sing
about. Or what has their interest. Mostly, what they growl, grunt or scream is
hardly understandable.

In the end, what is death metal for you?
Cheers for this interview, my friend! You can return to your mill.

Death metal to me, Is like a way of living. There is
not a day, that I don’t listen to it. Or wear a shirt or sweater of a band,
that I don’t search the internet for a new band, CD, LP or cassette. Or
whatever it takes. Like I said. Death metal is a passion. Not a fashion. And I
think I’ve lived it for a long tome now.

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What is this blog for...?

This blog is first and foremost to remind the UG metal community my work on PANZERFAUST zine, so I'll try to exhume my old interviews and reviews from that zine.

Blog is also an opportunity for me to share my thoughts on new releases, new bands... I'll publish here new reviews or interviews I've written recently, just for the pleasure of doing so and getting these things out of my mind, as I still enjoy writing about the music I love and live.Finally I'll be sharing here any others things I find interesting...